


float like you're weightless (let it float away)

by notcaycepollard



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Poe Dameron: flirtatious cinnamon roll, Rey is figuring some things out, never met an ot3 I didn't love, these dorks are too adorable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 03:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5569171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notcaycepollard/pseuds/notcaycepollard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Don't tell me," Poe says. "You can't swim."</p><p>"I can so," Rey says indignantly, and Poe just laughs, soft and amused. His eyes go teasing, and Rey looks away, glances at the way the water breaks in rills against the sand.</p><p>"Can so what?" Finn asks, coming up on her other side. Poe looks at him over Rey's head, and she doesn't have to use the Force to feel whatever it is that's building between the two of them.</p><p>"Swim," she tells him, and Finn's eyes go wide.</p><p>"Can we?" he says. "I've never- I mean, is it- do people like it?"</p><p>"I like it," Poe laughs, "especially on a hot day like this. It's a good way to cool off. I can teach you, if you want. Rey already knows." The way he looks at Rey, the way he tilts his head, is just a little challenging, daring her to admit she's lied. It makes her bold, makes her reckless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	float like you're weightless (let it float away)

Rey's favorite spot in the Resistance base is the shore.

She's more used to seeing stretches of water like this now. Master Skywalker's island was surrounded by it, and she's had enough frozen water -  _snow_ \- for a lifetime. But D'Qar is lush and warm and soft, and the lake is too gentle, too perfect, to feel real. It's a good place to sit and stare out across the horizon and think about the shape of her life now.

"You can swim in it, you know," Poe says from out of nowhere, slings his arm over her shoulder, and she jumps, flushes, tries to ignore the warm weight of his arm. Everything about Poe is warm, his hands and his eyes and his face,and she doesn't know how to respond to it (but she can see, at least, that Finn's just as bewildered as she is, and that's a little comforting).

"Swim?" she says instead, falling back on what she does know. Water, _clean_ water, is precious, something to be rationed, not something you can just dive into. Even in the refreshers, it's hard not to fall back on habit, to scrub herself with a rough cloth and a scant handful of water. 

"Don't tell me," Poe says. "You can't swim."

"I can so," Rey says indignantly, and Poe just laughs, soft and amused. His eyes go teasing, and Rey looks away, glances at the way the water breaks in rills against the sand.

"Can so what?" Finn asks, coming up on her other side. Poe looks at him over Rey's head, and she doesn't have to use the Force to feel whatever it is that's building between the two of them.

"Swim," she tells him, and Finn's eyes go wide.

"Can we?" he says. "I've never- I mean, is it- do people like it?"

"I like it," Poe laughs, "especially on a hot day like this. It's a good way to cool off. I can teach you, if you want. Rey already knows." The way he looks at Rey, the way he tilts his head, is just a little challenging, daring her to admit she's lied. It makes her bold, makes her reckless.

"Yes," she says, meeting his gaze, and she does feel hot now, feels the burn in her cheeks spread, feels almost like the heat of the sun back in Jakku. "You first." Poe doesn't hesitate, just toes out of his boots, shucks off his shirt and pants, and the sudden reveal of lean muscles and golden skin makes Finn's breath hitch.  _Oh_ , Rey thinks,  _oh_ , peels off her own tunic and trousers, strips off to her underwear and gives Poe a challenging look.

"Are you joining us?" he asks Finn, and Rey doesn't wait for the answer, just runs down to the water's edge, splashes in as if she's done this a hundred times before. The water is cool but not cold, and she wades deeper until she's up to her hips, stands for a moment, feels the pebbles underneath her toes. When she turns around, Finn's got his shirt off, is grinning at Poe, and Rey steps backward, sinks into the lake until she's floating on her back weightless and free.

She can't swim, was absolutely lying through her teeth to Poe, until suddenly she discovers that she can, that this is something she  _remembers_ , that a waterless desert wasn't her life all along. She dives down into the lake, feels the water pressing against her, swims to the bottom and looks up through the clear water to the sky above. This is different from the weightlessness of space, even in a ship with the gravity simulators turned off. Her hair's coming loose from the knots she wears it in, and she pulls out the ties, lets it drift around her in tendrils that wave in the slight current. Her lungs burn, and she pushes up to the surface, gasps for breath, is startled to find herself grinning with it too.

"You  _can_ swim," Poe says in tones of some surprise, swims over in easy, lazy strokes, and Rey raises an eyebrow, flips onto her back again, floats in the shallows.

"Yes, Commander Dameron," she says crisply, "you should know by now I can do whatever I say I can."

"I'm getting that," Poe murmurs, wraps his fingers around her ankle, tickles the instep of her foot, and she shrieks, kicks out at him, flails for balance and smacks Finn in the chest.

"Oh," she says, "Finn, sorry,  _sorry_."

"It's fine," he reassures her, "I'm fine. I'm not that breakable. You want to show me how to float like that?"

"Easy," she tells him, slides her hand down his ribs, tries not to think about Poe watching them both very thoughtfully.

 

 

Finn's almost got the hang of swimming now, after two hours of Rey and Poe alternating lessons, and when they splash back onto the shore, Rey can feel the tiredness of her muscles, the joy of movement for the sake of movement that's almost the same as saber training. She picks up her shirt, dries herself off a little, flops down onto the sand and  _stretches_ , enjoys how gentle the Ileenium sun is. It's not baking but warming, and she turns her face to it, squeezes the water out of her hair.

Poe settles next to her, and Finn beside him, so that it's too, too easy for Rey to lie back, rest her head on Finn's knee.

"I've never seen your hair out loose," Finn says, "is- can I touch it?" and she nods, feels him run his fingers carefully through the damp strands, stroke it back from her forehead and out across his lap. It's nice, better than nice, and she sighs, hums with pleasure, closes her eyes. Poe presses his arm against hers, carefully casual.

"He waited," he murmurs. "For you to come back.  _We_ waited."

"Oh," Rey says, pauses, doesn't know what to say. Finn keeps touching her hair, long easy movements that feel like they're unwinding all the tension she's held within her, but she can feel that he's waiting for her response. "Okay," she says in the end. "Thanks for waiting for me." It feels graceless and awkward, like she should know how to do this better, but Finn laughs, moves his fingers from her hair to the curve of her neck, and Poe continues to be warm where he's pressed up against her.

"Do you know how to do this?" Finn asks after a minute, and Rey smirks.

"Finn," she says, "we can do whatever we say we can, Mr Big Shot Resistance," and that's Poe's cue to laugh until he's crying, and then to shift so he's sitting with Finn and his hands are in her hair too.

"We could put your hair back up," he suggests, "but you might need to teach us how to do the whole top-knot thing." He's more daring than Finn, tangles his fingers in it and scrapes his nails gently over her scalp, and Rey shivers a little.

"Let's try something different," she says, thinks for a while. She's worn her hair like this for years, for over a decade, since the day the mother she can't remember tied it up so carefully.  _What if they don't recognize me_ , she'd thought every morning, and fixed it the same way.

"Nabooan crown? Yavinese twist? If you want me to pull off something fancy, I don't exactly have the tools for it," Poe teases.

"Let's try something simple," Rey murmurs. "A three-strand braid? Think you can manage that?"

"Yeah," Poe says. "Yeah, I think we can do that." Rey feels him separate out her hair into sections, brush them smooth with his fingers. "See, you bring this part over here," he tells Finn, and Rey relaxes as their hands begin to braid, listens to the hum of their voices.

"Oh," Finn whispers, "I see, that-" and there's silence, their hands still on her hair, and then the sound of a kiss. Rey cracks open her eyes, cranes her head backwards, sees Poe blinking as Finn kisses him in a way that looks much more determined than experienced.

"Hey," she says, projects more outrage in her voice than she feels, "I thought you were waiting for me, here?"

"You're here," Finn points out. "We're all here. I thought we were done with the waiting bit."

"Well," Rey says, twists around, climbs into his lap. "I suppose we are." Poe laughs again at that, wraps her long braid around his wrist, pulls her in for a kiss, and Poe's lips are just as warm as the rest of him, while Finn's hands on her skin, it turns out she's been waiting for them, too, all along.

 

 

They only return to the base when the sun sets, and Rey's hair is still a little damp, enough that she's cold. Finn offers her his jacket but she smiles, shakes her head, presses a kiss to his mouth.

"Save me a seat at dinner," she tells him, goes to get her own jacket from her quarters. She runs into General Organa - Aunt Organa - in the hall, bites her lip a little, wonders whether she looks as kiss-dazed as she feels.

"Rey," Leia says, very gentle. "I'm glad to see you returned. You've changed your hair."

"Yes," Rey says, touches the braid, thinks of tender hands weaving triple strands into place. "Yes."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] float like you're weightless (let it float away)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6752467) by [Shmaylor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shmaylor/pseuds/Shmaylor)




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